In a day, when so many preachers are saying that we need to ditch the Old Testament, we need to give up the Old Testament, I'm going to show you in this book how to read the Bible, that the two Old and New Testaments are interrelated. You cannot have one without the other.
One does not make sense without the other. And so I hope you're going to read that book and you're going to apply it to your life. It will strengthen your faith and your trust in the Word of God. Right now, Dr. Yusef is making this powerful book, How to Read the Bible, available when you give a gift of any amount to the worldwide ministry of leading the way.
Start at ltw.org or call and speak with a ministry representative at 866-626-4356. Thank you for joining with listeners around the world for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef. Old Testament Joseph lived a life of forgiveness, offering it through some very difficult circumstances. For example, remember Joseph's response to his brothers who sold him into slavery and prison? Well, his life offers you a look at God's forgiving heart.
And it's what Dr. Yusef has cued up on this episode of Leading the Way audio. Forgiveness is often talked about, yet the least practiced subject among Christians. Forgiveness is more often paid lip service to and yet least understood.
Forgiveness probably the most preached on subject, yet least practically applied. In the last message we left Joseph ready, willing and eager to hand forgiveness to his brothers. He wanted to do it. He has done it in his heart and he's ready to hand it to them. But he prolonged a test.
He prolonged a test in order to see if they are repentant, if they are willing to have a change of heart or they're still miserable, jealous, full of hatred that they were. So this is how he went about it. He decided that he wants to see his full brother Benjamin. Now he knew that this is going to be a tough thing for his father to do. He sends his brothers. They go over there and say, Jacob, Daddy, Joseph the ruler of Egypt wants Benjamin.
And he said, not on your life. And Jacob digs his heels and he absolutely would not budge until the 66 miles around him got hungry again. And he felt that the walls were caving in on him. And he had to surrender Benjamin. He had to give Benjamin to go with them. And when Benjamin arrives in Egypt and Joseph's eye looks upon his full brother, Joseph in an effort to extend the test, he said, I'm going to keep Benjamin and you all go back and take the food with you.
That was impossible. But at this point, their reaction to Joseph's test convinced him that they are repentant, that they have a change of heart. Instead of saying, 22 years ago, you know what these boys would have done? Good riddance. Keep Benjamin. He's the last thing that our father's hanging on to. And now we got rid of all the ones that he loved. They would have said, wonderful idea.
Keep him. But you know, here they didn't do that. They tore their clothes. It's a sign of repentance. Tearing of the clothes is a sign of repentance. They offered themselves into slavery instead of Benjamin. They said, let Benjamin go and we stay and be your slave. At that point, and only at that point, Joseph realizes that they had a change of heart and he tells them who he was.
With tears and deep emotions, he embraces his brothers. He forgives them all that they've done. But I want you to notice six things right here about forgiveness that every Christian must understand. I want to separate biblical forgiveness from the sentimentality of the world and the media. I want you to notice what Joseph did and did not do.
The first thing is this. He did not overlook the wrong that his brothers did. Sometimes Christians think that forgiveness is the same as overlooking the wrong. Sometimes Christians think that forgiveness is the same as pretending that it really ever happened. Sometimes Christians confuse forgiveness and think it is the same as convincing themselves that it really wasn't a big deal.
But deep down it is. This effort of trying to overlook the wrong can only harm both the wrongdoer and the one to whom the wrong has been done. It only prolongs the agony. It delays the healing of God.
That's the first thing. Here's the second thing that Joseph did not do. He did not excuse or whitewash the wrong. Later on we're going to see in chapter 50 verse 20 he said the following. He said, you have meant evil against me, but God turned it for good. Most Christians love to take the second part.
God turned it for good. And they leave out the first part that you have meant it for evil. You did the wrong thing.
Joseph did not say to his brothers, oh, I understand how you felt at that time. After all, I was a teenager. Oh, I must have really aggravated you guys. Or I know that you really didn't mean to be miserable brats when you put me down in that pit. You did not mean to be miserable rascals when you sold me to the Midianites. You would say this would have been ludicrous.
And it is ludicrous, but so many Christians act that way. Joseph made no attempt to whitewash the wrongdoing. Please listen for me very carefully. You cannot truly forgive someone if you whitewash the wrong that they've done. Now I got you mad enough.
I'm setting you up. Here's the third thing that Joseph did not do. He did not try to psychoanalyze the wrongdoer. He didn't try to explain away the horrible things that they did.
You know what? I think if he did that, he would never have been able to truly forgive them from his heart. You know, nowadays we try to substitute genuine forgiveness for psychoanalyzing the wrongdoer.
And we get people walking out of prison before they finish 10% of their term simply because they found a bleeding heart social worker who said, oh, well, you know, his mother was an alcoholic and his father rejected him as a little boy. He really doesn't deserve punishment. Hogwash. All that may be true, but it does not excuse the wrong that was done. You read the words of Jesus not many times that Jesus talk about sin and sinners, but he talks about fools and foolish.
Why? Because there is moral stupidity about sin. Often in frustration when we see somebody blowing it and we say, I can't understand why she did that. I don't understand why when everything was going his way, why did he throw it all away? That is the foolishness of sin. Analyzing and psychoanalyzing may be helpful, but it is not forgiveness. It is not the same as forgiveness.
Fourthly, Joseph did not take the blame upon himself. He didn't say, well, you know, after all, it's really my fault. I've told you all these dreams and it's really my fault. I should have kept my mouth shut. Or he might say, well, it really was my fault for wearing this, flaunting the multicolor robes. I should have really been more discreet. I should have been more sensitive.
No. If Joseph put the blame on himself, he would have never been able to forgive them truly. Now women, please listen to me very carefully.
I want to tell you this in love and in appreciation. Women particularly are more prone to blaming themselves even when they know deep down it's somebody else's fault. Instead of praying and waiting for a confession from the wrongdoer, women often, not always, but often blame themselves just to keep the peace.
That's wrong. Amen? I wanted the men to say amen. Joseph waited and insisted until they made their confession until he was satisfied that they've changed of heart and they were repentant. Until they tore their clothes, which is a sign of repentance, Joseph would not budge. Hear me right. Blaming yourself when you know deep down that is really not your fault, it is somebody else's wrongdoing.
It is not only wrong, but it's unhealthy. That is not true forgiveness when you just blame yourself or put the blame on yourself. The Holy Spirit of God is described by the Lord Jesus Christ as the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth. And he works in our lives and he works in our relationships through the truth, through truthfulness. The Holy Spirit of God is the one who mediates forgiveness with God and with one another. And he does not like it. And he would not like to see untruth takes place. Forgiveness will not happen at that point. Here's the fifth thing that Joseph did not do. He did not tell them that he had forgiven them prior to their confession and asking for forgiveness. You notice there in verse 15, the very last verse, they had a long talk with him. Guess what they were talking about? The weather?
The trip? They were pouring their hearts out to him. Don't just say to somebody I forgive you without that person knows that he needs your forgiveness. You make it harder for everyone.
It makes the problem worse, not better. Don't give forgiveness to anyone prior to their asking for it. Please hear me before you get up at the end.
I know some of you are already getting two inches up from your seat. You can and you must. Are you listening carefully? You can and you must forgive the person who wronged you immediately when the wrong has been done. Immediately.
Don't go to sleep at night without taking care of it. That's what Paul is telling us in chapter four of Ephesians. And then when you pray, you pray at peace because you have dealt with that and you have forgiven in your heart. And let God deal with them according to his wisdom, according to his justice. We often forget that God is the God of love, but he's also the God of justice. And love and justice are the two sides of the coin. And when you split a coin, it becomes illegal tender.
You can't use it, it becomes phony. And the two sides of God of love and justice have to go together side by side. Paul said, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God forgave us our sins way back in Calvary. He knew it even beyond the foundation of the earth. He knew that he has forgiven us before we have experience of forgiveness. When Jesus hung on the cross and he said, Father, forgive them. How many people do you think have known this?
John, Mary, maybe a handful of others. Some of the Roman soldiers didn't even understand what he was talking about. But we did not receive forgiveness. We did not enjoy the joy that comes from forgiveness. We did not understand the peace that can come to us through experience his forgiveness until we have repented and turned to the Lord.
So it is with us. We can forgive. We must forgive the person. I mean genuinely forgive the person the moment they've wronged us. But don't offer the forgiveness until that person asks for it. Hear me right.
I know I'm standing on eggshells actually on some of your thinking, some fuzzy thinking is need to be clear today. You don't have to wait until the person asks you for forgiveness to forgive them. That's not what I'm saying. When you actually forgive them the moment they've wronged you, then you are able to hand them forgiveness the moment they ask you for it. You know why? Because you already dealt with it in your heart, in your relationship with the Lord, in your prayers. I am convinced that Joseph forgave his brothers the moment they wronged him. Before he even got to Egypt, he has already dealt with that wrong that they've done to him in his heart. He prayed and he dealt with it.
You know how I know it? Because God blessed him in the house of Potiphar. He would have not been blessed of God if you were still in carrying a grudge in his heart.
I am convinced that Joseph forgave Mrs. Potiphar before he even got to the prison. But he waited until his brothers came to him in repentance until they came in humility asking for that forgiveness and then he gave it to them. Now having told you the generalities, there's one exception.
And the exception is this. It's in Matthew 18. If the Lord impress upon your heart that you need to confront that person who had wronged you, the person that sinned against you, then you must confront him.
You must confront her. And after the confrontation, when the person asks for forgiveness, you are ready to give it to them. It's already there in your heart.
You're going to give it. You're not going to work on it because you already dealt with it with the Lord. Here's the sixth thing. In forgiving, Joseph faced the wrong that was done to him. When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, he was very specific. Look at it. Verse 4.
I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold to Egypt. It can be more clear than that. In asking forgiveness from the Lord, you must be specific in asking God to forgive you a specific sin. And it's the same with others. When we forgive others, they must ask specifically for a forgiveness of a certain sin.
Why is this so important? I'll tell you why. You know Paul in Ephesians was talking about foothold to the devil?
This is why. Facing squarely up to the wrong done to you and you're issuing a clear and unequivocal forgiveness is going to enable you to stop the devil from replaying that record again and again and again. When you face the wrong and issue a crystal clear forgiveness, Satan will not be able to come and plow that same ground over and over. When you face the wrong and decisively forgive, Satan is not able to continuously hamper your spiritual growth. When you deal with a person's wrong and you forgive them in the presence of God or even in the presence of witness, when Satan comes to you and they said, oh, you know about so and so and so, stop playing the stuff in your ear, you can say, Satan, buzz off. I took care of that on the 19th of November, 1933.
I took care of that in January of 1924. I have taken care of that once and for all because that's what the Lord wants. Not to go over it and over it and over it again, but to deal with it decisively once and for all.
Let me ask you this. Have you ever felt rejected by someone that you really dearly wanted him or her to accept you? Forgive that person who reject you. Say, I forgive and name that person in Jesus' name. Has someone humiliated you or caused you to lose faith? Don't relive that moment.
Don't put the thing on rewind and replay all the time. Name it to God and forgive them in Jesus' name. Has somebody deprived you of affection when you needed it the most? Has someone neglected you when you needed them the most?
Has somebody ignored you? Don't stew over it. Forgive them once and for all in Jesus' name.
Has someone unjustly and unfairly treated you? Don't get filled with anger. Say, I forgive him. I forgive her. I forgive them in Jesus' name. Forgiveness is facing of all your resentment. Forgiveness is facing of all the stored up anger. Forgiveness is the facing of all that bottled up injuries in your heart. Has someone betrayed you? Someone that is dearest and nearest? Don't keep on saying to yourself, why did they do this?
How could they do this? Say, I forgive you in the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever felt abandoned by someone who should have stood by you at the times of your deepest needs? They left you. They forsook you.
They abandoned you. Don't wish harm to them. Just say, by the blood of Christ, I forgive them in Jesus' name. And what Paul is saying in Ephesians 4 is this, that there are graduating levels of ill will. It begins with anger. But if you don't deal with that anger, it will fester and it will become malice and it will become bitterness and will dig the roots deep.
Unless you face that anger while still anger, it will become bitterness, whether you're aware of it or not. Forgiveness is not only facing squarely up to the resentment, your own resentment, but I really believe it's also facing the cross of Christ. Some of you are born again, know the Lord, but not often do you face the cross of Christ.
Not very often do you think about the cross of Christ. Forgiveness forces you to face the cross of Christ. Once you have faced up your resentment, you are facing a choice. For the believer, for those who are forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ, they have no choice but to forgive. But the truth is, we Christians, don't forgive as we ought. The only place that you can go after admitting your resentment is the cross of Jesus Christ. Listen to what Paul said in verse 32 of Ephesians 4. Be kind and compassionate one to another, forgiving each other just as Christ forgave you.
When God forgives us our sins through Christ's death, what did he do? It was because Christ took upon himself my guilt. He took upon himself and in himself my punishment. He took upon himself and in himself my shame. The guilt should have been mine. The shame should be mine. The punishment should have been mine.
I deserve to suffer these things. But instead, God took them and set me free. God didn't overlook sin. God did not whitewash sin. God did not ignore sin, no. In order to forgive us, really forgive us, God had to deal with sin.
God cannot overlook, he cannot whitewash, he cannot ignore our sins. And what Paul is saying is this, when it comes to forgiving one another, listen carefully please, I'm getting close. When it comes to forgiving one another, when it comes to forgiving someone who wronged you, when it comes to forgiving someone who hurt you deeply, you are to take that pain and shame that they deserve to the cross of Jesus Christ. Forgiveness is the hardest thing in the life of a Christian.
It really is, trust me. Forgiveness involves the suffering of love. Read carefully, I ended up reading it in a couple of languages but you don't have to do that. I was reading again and again the intensity of that moment in those three chapters in Genesis. You know who suffered the most?
Not the brothers, Joseph did. He suffered more than his brothers in forgiving them. And forgiveness involves the suffering of love.
The only place where we can forgive is when we stand at the foot of the cross. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way. Learn about the many ways that Dr. Youssef and the teams are passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth all around the world through media and local ministry.
Visit ltw.org. The wonderful thing that I always got from Dr. Youssef's books and teaching was that I wouldn't walk away thinking about him but thinking about God. I know that something started here tonight and that lives were changed. God led us here. God wants us to be born again Christians. I was like, Jesus is God.
Like Jesus is the truth. I'm just maybe like happy in myself and since I found God, it's amazing. Dr. Michael Youssef, God has used you to breathe so much freshness into my life when all hope was really lost. Thank you.
Dr. Michael Youssef's sermons were very helpful. My viewpoint of God is different. He's not in a box anymore. I have this relationship with him and it's just awesome. It's vibrant.
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